MMOs - Why don't more follow this concept?

[Scraggles]

I love MMOs. Especially the ones that allow you to do multiple classes on the same character. Why aren't more games doing it? It is so beneficial. You can make a group of friends based on your character and never worry about 'we need a healer' because EVERYONE can be one. Its sort of like playing a game of league of legends. Before every game you pick your type of champion.

 

Pros - No need to endure the storyline 8 times if you don't want to just to experience all the classes. 

People remember you by name. NO need to say 'Whats your tanks name...?'

You can become more connected with your character. If you fall in love with a class, its still on the same 'character'. I have had so many times where I 'hate' some characters on my account because I simply don't like the class.

 

Cons -  I can't think of any... except MAYBE storage space, but that is a problem that can easily be resolved with housing or something. 

 

What do you guys think? Pros that I haven't listed? Cons? I really want to know why more games don't implement this. 

[adrynalyne]

Probably because World of Warcraft in its entire crappiness still kills off new MMOs.

[Alera]

Because having more than one class on a character usually completely unbalances the game, sure it can be more fun but it can also lead to some seriously powerful setups.

 

If you mean an MMO more like Guild Wars then I'd agree but a game that allows you to multiclass like RIFT etc is a bad idea imo. Even non-MMOs that allow you to do everything on one character like Elder Scrolls game can make you too powerful! :p

 

Perhaps allowing you to switch your class on your character and level it up again to earn spells and abilities like Guild Wars would be a nice touch but not allowing you access to all of the classes at once.

[madd-hatter]

I really want to know why more games don't implement this. 

 

Try Path of Exile.

[Alera]

Try Path of Exile.

 

A very good example of what can go so wrong with the multiclass setup, +1.

[madd-hatter]

A very good example of what can go so wrong with the multiclass setup, +1.

:o Blasphemy!

[Nagisan]

Pros - No need to endure the storyline 8 times if you don't want to just to experience all the classes. 

People remember you by name. NO need to say 'Whats your tanks name...?'

You can become more connected with your character. If you fall in love with a class, its still on the same 'character'. I have had so many times where I 'hate' some characters on my account because I simply don't like the class.

 

Cons -  I can't think of any... except MAYBE storage space, but that is a problem that can easily be resolved with housing or something. 

 

What do you guys think? Pros that I haven't listed? Cons? I really want to know why more games don't implement this. 

For me it's a bit more like this:

 

Pros:

- One character name to deal with.

- Less hassle when you need a different classes abilities and don't have a character leveled for that already.

 

Cons:

- You get finished with the game as soon as you beat it once....NO REASON AT ALL to go back and replay the game.

- Everybody has everything, meaning no groups really need to look for specific classes, just change the class that some of their players are using.

- Stuck with the name you used on your first character unless you decide to restart.

 

Personally I don't like systems that allow full and easy respecs, or allow all classes to do everything. It's something nice to have occasionally when a game is crappy enough that you can only stomach playing through it once, but in all other cases it KILLS the re-playability of a game. I HATE playing through the story then having nothing but high-end dungeons to do for the rest of my time playing the game; "end-game" as it exists in WoW completely blows IMO. The few times I have played WoW, I basically play from level 1, to the max level, get bored of farming dungeons/raids and either re-roll as a different class and do it again, or quit altogether.

 

I love a good story in a single-player game, but I typically play it once before I quit (even when it has multiple endings or different scenarios based on how you play it).....nothing worse than a large MMO that follows this same logic (play once and because your character is capable of any roll at end-game you typically don't want to play it again).

 

 

EDIT: To me, Path of Exile is a game that really shines in terms of re-playability. You make a character, at a high level if you want to change how you play you can do so, at a high cost. Or you can choose to re-roll that character (even as a different class altogether) to optimize how that build plays. The gem system adds a huge amount of flexibility though.....skills are NOT tied to the character/class, but instead they are tied to how you equip gems in your armor.....so you can instantly test something or change from one build to another (That uses similar skills) without having to start over...only starting over when you radically want to change your character.

[Xilo]

Because having more than one class on a character usually completely unbalances the game, sure it can be more fun but it can also lead to some seriously powerful setups.

 

If you mean an MMO more like Guild Wars then I'd agree but a game that allows you to multiclass like RIFT etc is a bad idea imo. Even non-MMOs that allow you to do everything on one character like Elder Scrolls game can make you too powerful! :p

 

Perhaps allowing you to switch your class on your character and level it up again to earn spells and abilities like Guild Wars would be a nice touch but not allowing you access to all of the classes at once.

He means like FF11/FF14. You can only be one class at a time, but instead of leveling new characters for each class, you just swap to the class you want to play while out of combat.

[Alera]

He means like FF11/FF14. You can only be one class at a time, but instead of leveling new characters for each class, you just swap to the class you want to play while out of combat.

 

That's the good way to do yes! :o Allows you to fill any role needed for your group without needing someone to specialise as it all the time I guess.

[firey]

I love MMOs. Especially the ones that allow you to do multiple classes on the same character. Why aren't more games doing it? It is so beneficial. You can make a group of friends based on your character and never worry about 'we need a healer' because EVERYONE can be one. Its sort of like playing a game of league of legends. Before every game you pick your type of champion.

 

Pros - No need to endure the storyline 8 times if you don't want to just to experience all the classes. 

People remember you by name. NO need to say 'Whats your tanks name...?'

You can become more connected with your character. If you fall in love with a class, its still on the same 'character'. I have had so many times where I 'hate' some characters on my account because I simply don't like the class.

 

Cons -  I can't think of any... except MAYBE storage space, but that is a problem that can easily be resolved with housing or something. 

 

What do you guys think? Pros that I haven't listed? Cons? I really want to know why more games don't implement this. 

I disagree, for me 1 player multi-class = bad.  Here's my pro/con list.

Pro 

- One name

- Can easily change roles without logging out

- No need to re-do stories

Cons

- Lack of storage space

- You never become one with your character/create a bond so to speak

- You never focus on the skills you have with that specific class

- No reason to try out new characters, races, etc

- You never feel special or unique, you just fill gaps where needed.

- You don't bring anything special to the table

I think WoW did it right, having set classes with different roles was the best.  Though I don't necessarily like how they have made some classes master of all (Heals, DPS, and Tanks).  I liked having my Priest that was dual spec'd disc/holy  I like having a mage that was just pure DPS, I liked having a DK that could Tank or do DPS.

I very much dislike when equipping a weapon/item used by another class instantly gives you all the capabilities.

[dead.cell]

I love MMOs. Especially the ones that allow you to do multiple classes on the same character. Why aren't more games doing it? It is so beneficial. You can make a group of friends based on your character and never worry about 'we need a healer' because EVERYONE can be one. Its sort of like playing a game of league of legends. Before every game you pick your type of champion.

 

Pros - No need to endure the storyline 8 times if you don't want to just to experience all the classes. 

People remember you by name. NO need to say 'Whats your tanks name...?'

You can become more connected with your character. If you fall in love with a class, its still on the same 'character'. I have had so many times where I 'hate' some characters on my account because I simply don't like the class.

 

Cons -  I can't think of any... except MAYBE storage space, but that is a problem that can easily be resolved with housing or something. 

 

What do you guys think? Pros that I haven't listed? Cons? I really want to know why more games don't implement this. 

As someone who loved FFXIV though, am not playing it currently...

 

I like replayability. I like sometimes having different characters with different histories. Making another character on FFXIV though makes me feel regret because I feel like I should work only to progress that one character rather than enjoy myself with another.

 

I dunno. I mean, there certainly are pros, but I like the idea of building characters and leveling through different areas of the game for that matter. One of the big things that people seem to misunderstand about WoW even is that when you're playing only one faction, you're only seeing half the game at that. There are awesome stories on the opposing side to enjoy. :)

[firey]

I dunno. I mean, there certainly are pros, but I like the idea of building characters and leveling through different areas of the game for that matter. One of the big things that people seem to misunderstand about WoW even is that when you're playing only one faction, you're only seeing half the game at that. There are awesome stories on the opposing side to enjoy. :)

 

Only noobs play alliance.

[dead.cell]

Only noobs play alliance.

Only sperglords play horde. :P

 

Source: I'm playing horde.

[Snake89]

Hey OP, then you should look into Everquest next because what your talking about is coming.

[+Asmodai MVC]

Games use classes to promote teamwork.  If everyone can do anything then there is no point building a party.  Skyrim for example is a single player game where you control one person so you can do everything and there is no need for classes.  If it's a party based game then having classes promotes the idea of having different people specialize in different things and work together.  MMOs tend to be party focused, the thought being what is the point of being Massively Multilayer if everyone is just acting alone.  Limiting what one character can do "encourages" that character to seek others for those things they can't do and actually builds community and interaction.  It's in a MMOs interest to build a sense of community, to have it's players seek out new people and not just play with their existing friends, that community is what keeps people playing the game after new games with better specs come out.

[Xilo]

Everyone in this thread has seriously misunderstood what the OP meant. :/

[firey]

Only sperglords play horde. :p

 

Source: I'm playing horde.

For the Horde!

[Scraggles]

Hey OP, then you should look into Everquest next because what your talking about is coming.

 

I guess I should have clarified. I'm talking about something like FFXI. Only, no mixing classes. In that, you went to your house to change classes. So you couldn't do it 'on the fly'. 

 

As for the cons of being 'stuck' with a name. I never said you HAD to play that one character. Make 10. I don't care. Have 10 characters with individual inventories. Satisfy you, and me. Giving us the option to change classes would not stop anyone from making more. Hell, if you want one character to be a tank because his looks, and another a mage because of her looks. Go for it. Nothing is stopping you. I'm not talking about FORCING anything on anyone. I'm talking about options.

 

I personally would like one character. If I wanted to relive the story line, great. I CAN. However at the moment nearly every game FORCES you to redo the storyline. It gets boring real fast. Especially when you're trying the 8th class in the game. 

 

I want one character, that I can go to my 'house' and change classes. 100%. All new skills, new armor/weapons picked up at my house. No trace that I was just playing a warrior and now I'm a mage. Have my level reflect my newly chosen class as well. If its my first time playing a Thief, I'm level one, even though I was just a level 80 warrior.

 

All this, while my friend Bubba had the time to log out, and hop on his healer because he prefers that old school system.

 

See what I'm saying?

[Nagisan]

Have my level reflect my newly chosen class as well. If its my first time playing a Thief, I'm level one, even though I was just a level 80 warrior.

That's where it gets complicated.....if you don't replay the story it's going to be a ton harder to level from level one than if you make a new character to level.

 

With your clarification (not a forced system) I would be perfectly fine with it, but re-leveling a character who has already completed the story would be much more difficult since many MMOs rely on quest systems to give you experience (completing quests unlocks other quests or new areas entirely and they can generally only be completed once).

[Scraggles]

That's where it gets complicated.....if you don't replay the story it's going to be a ton harder to level from level one than if you make a new character to level.

 

With your clarification (not a forced system) I would be perfectly fine with it, but re-leveling a character who has already completed the story would be much more difficult since many MMOs rely on quest systems to give you experience (completing quests unlocks other quests or new areas entirely and they can generally only be completed once).

Agreed, it could. However at that point, why not have class stories  that help leveling along the way? Level based dungeons drastically help leveling in any game anyway, so nothing saying you couldn't repeat those.

Still I have yet to see any true cons.

[Nagisan]

Agreed, it could. However at that point, why not have class stories  that help leveling along the way? Level based dungeons drastically help leveling in any game anyway, so nothing saying you couldn't repeat those.

Still I have yet to see any true cons.

Depending on the class being played, level-based dungeons are not always useful for leveling (in WoW specifically, it was almost always faster to quest grind as DPS classes rather than do dungeons). I would think slower leveling (in the case of having few quests uncompleted after changing to a lower level class) would be a pretty notable con.

 

Take Runes of Magic for example, it has a multi-class system (that is, you pick two classes, and get special skills depending on your primary/secondary class selection. You can pick every class, but only get skills from your current primary/secondary class). It has this problem where you have to level each class you take from level 1. Once you complete the quests in an area you cannot go back and do them again.....so once you complete the overlapping areas (there are a few zones for every level bracket) you run out of quests so if you want to level another class you MUST mob grind or run lower level dungeons. And that kind of leveling is 10x more boring than doing quests.

 

RoM might have changed by now (been years since I played it), but leveling was quite harsh after you got 2-3 classes up to the same level and ran out of quests you could do. People generally level one character with a few classes, if they want a different combo they level a new character.

 

Now, a hybrid system where you can viably do either/or doesn't really have a con if you look at the system as a whole since it caters to two different people.....but you could say it brings in issues related to the leveling experience (easier/harder for people to get gear or exp based on whether they leveled a new character from the beginning or not, etc).

[Scraggles]

How about allowing your character to go through the storyline again as the new class? Not 'forcing' it, but allowing it. Allow any new class to play any quest you've already completed before. That way if a friend needed help with a particular quest, you could help them with it and still get credit for it. But only allow each class to complete each quest once for the rewards.

[protocol7]

Maybe give The Secret World a try.

 

It's the only MMO I've played so I'm not that familiar with how they usually work, but you can change your build on-the-fly. It doesn't have a class system as such but certain loadouts (for want of a better word) will allow you to focus more on tanking or healing etc. Your equipment and abilities have levels as well, so if you're just starting out with a new one it will be a low level until you work it up.

[Scraggles]

Maybe give The Secret World a try.

 

It's the only MMO I've played so I'm not that familiar with how they usually work, but you can change your build on-the-fly. It doesn't have a class system as such but certain loadouts (for want of a better word) will allow you to focus more on tanking or healing etc. Your equipment and abilities have levels as well, so if you're just staring out with a new one it will be a low level until you work it up.

It isn't that I'm 'looking' for a game that does this. I have probably played 90% of the MMO's out, including the crappy asian ports. I'm more wondering why games don't do it. It could be such a beneficial system. I have the secret world, path of exile, FFXIV, FFXI, Tera, Rift, WoW, DCUO, pretty much anything out. I'm dying to preorder Wildstar. ESO was far too buggy when I played the beta. 

[astropheed Veteran]

If its my first time playing a Thief, I'm level one, even though I was just a level 80 warrior.

 

Love it. So I assume you mean if you change class back to warrior you become level 80 again?

 

If so, I concur.